Friday Puzzles #113

So I’m a little bit of a rush writing this entry, but let me make a couple of brief comments about how my Nikoli Selection LMI puzzle contest went last weekend. Firstly, I was very pleased to see lots of participation (even with a clash with a German competition) and that nothing went wrong. Reception to the puzzles seemed very warm and I’m glad that there was something in it for everyone.

Special mention has to go to the winner of the contest, Hideaki Jo, who had the main set of 16 puzzles solved in little over half the allotted time, before proceeding to destroy the 3 bonus “marathon” puzzles. I was expecting what with the puzzles being fairly tricky, answer entry and everything else that there was really only a possibility that 2 of these 3 puzzles could be gotten out in time, but Hideaki pulled off a stunning performance to get out all 3. Commiserations should also be offered to Dr. Snyder, who actually had the main 16 out faster than Hideaki (and actually slightly faster than my own test-solving times, which don’t take into account answer entry, and obviously aren’t the first times I’ve seen the puzzles), but tripped up on the larger yajilin puzzle, and could only manage a “mere” 2 marathons in time.

Anyhow, thanks for participating and making the whole thing a great success if you did, and if you didn’t, the puzzles are still up at LMI if you want to try them out. Like I say, if you enjoy the puzzles on this blog, you’ll love the test :-).

Onto this week’s puzzle. A 10×10 akari. Must be rubbish then eh? Enjoy!

    #141 Akari – rated medium
 

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11